HSBC Blues

For years, I'd been quite happy with my Internet Banking from HSBC. So I wasn't too worried when they told me my company had to be migrated to the new HSBCnet web portal. The move would take two to three days during which I'd have no Internet access to my account. Stage one went smoothly- they had no trouble at all disabling my old portal. Stage two, enabling the new, was more of a challenge apparently, as it took them forty days (and forty nights no doubt) to re-enable my access and necessitated no fewer than three trips to Dubai (from Doha) to sign various papers and finally collect the new security device.
Then came the real challenge- working out how to use the new portal. There's no doubt that it is more flexible and powerful than its clean and easy predecessor. If I were an accounts manager for a large corporation I'd probably be delighted with it. But for a small company with a single account, its layer upon layer of complexity is overkill with a vengeance. For example, before I could transfer some cash to my personal account (very necessary after forty days in the banking wilderness) I had to:

• Assign all our accounts (we have only one) to an account group called 'A'
• Declare a maximum daily transfer limit between all the accounts in group 'A'.
• Declare a maximum daily transaction limit between accounts in Group 'A' and elsewhere.
• As System Administrator, assign myself to a user group of one person (me)
• Authorise my user group to effect payments and transfers on Account Group 'A'
• Assign my own signing limit within this user group for transfers and payments.

Intuitive, huh?

Waiter, there's a Mouse in my System

a five-star mouse

Idling away an hour or so this afternoon, waiting in a bar for someone who had already left, I spotted a mouse running around on the cables at the back of the sound system. S/he (for who am I to presume to sex a mouse on sight?) seemed quite proprietorial towards the rig, darting in and out of sight among the various modules but never venturing down to the floor and the wider World beyond.
I drew the barman's attention to his non-paying lodger and in so doing triggered a performance of extrication and capture that involved no fewer than three deputy managers, two waitresses, the barman himself, a box of tissues, a hand towel and a long spoon. Performance over and calm restored, I was on the point of asking for my bill when I was approached by yet another deputy manager, this one a supermodel, or could have been, with a first class honours degree in Charm. She apologised profusely for the 'unfortunate event', expressed the hope that it hadn't spoiled my experience, and insisted that my drinks were complimentary. Out of respect for this wholly unnecessary gesture, I'll refrain from publishing the name of the hotel. I just hope they set the mouse free outside, but have my doubts.

Mr Mustard in the Living Room with the Lead Pipe

Paraglider's 60th birthday celebration was nothing if not an international affair. The party of sixteen included representatives from: China (North and South), Singapore, Cyprus, UK (Scotland and England), Lebanon, USA, Canada and Japan. The restaurant (Oasis Beach Club) was Italian and Chinese, the music was courtesy of a Filipino duo and most of the remaining clientèle were local Qataris in national dress.
For reasons I can't quite remember, it became necessary at one stage to establish the correct Japanese rendering of the Cluedo phrase: Mr. Mustard, in the Living Room, with the Lead Pipe. You may want to keep this handy, for the next time you find yourself playing board games in Tokyo. It goes like this, complete with phonetic transcription:

Boat Roundabout sans Boat

the boat, no more

Another of Doha's landmarks has disappeared, possibly temporarily but time will tell. This excavation site is Boat Roundabout which, as you can see, has been levelled to the ground and the boat (an old Dhow) removed.
Another missing landmark is the old red fire engine (built on a bull-nosed Mercedes truck chassis). For years it sat outside the Civil Defence building by Defence Roundabout. This week I was disappointed to find an empty plinth where the fire engine had been. I hope it turns up again as I was planning to photograph it to add to my bull-nosed Mercedes collection. Doha life engenders odd hobbies like that!